'Our attacking style will pay off in the end!' - Joe Hart on Manchester City's leaky defence

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Exposed: Hart's efforts were in vain as City lost to West Ham in their last Premier League game

Michael Hann

2 November 2014

Manchester City may be conceding too many goals for Joe Hart's liking but the England goalkeeper believes the champions will be rewarded for their gung-ho playing style.

Third-placed City have looked shaky in defence on occasions this season, conceding a number of soft goals because of lapses in concentration at the back.

But despite their soft centre, Hart is adamant City will reap the rewards of their free-flowing attacking style.

"We've leaked goals, simple goals have gone in and people have taken their chances against us, but with the way we play we are quite open to conceding the odd goal or two," Hart was quoted as saying by The Independent.

"Unfortunately that is not great as a goalkeeper, but you've got to be realistic and understand we are trying to build a way of playing football that potentially is going to lead to letting the odd goal in.

"It is not something we accept, but as long as we carry on playing the way we're playing under this philosophy that we've got under the manager, we will be fine."

French defender Eliaquim Mangala, who joined City from Porto for 32 million pounds, has made an inconsistent start to his Premier League career, making a number of crucial defensive errors, but Hart backed the 23-year-old to come good at the Etihad Stadium.

"Mangala knows we are more than confident in him," he said. "The manager is confident in him, and that is the most important thing."

Having lost to Stoke City and West Ham United so far this season, City have made a stuttering start to the defence of their Premier League title and the 27-year-old has called on his team mates to raise their performance levels.

"Sometimes you can get by when a few people don't play quite to their standard, but we've all been a little off par recently and we've been punished," he said.

"We're not quite there at the moment. It's obviously not down to lack of effort, we always play for each other and play for the manager, but we just need to step up our quality."

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Manuel Pellegrini

'Our attacking style will pay off in the end!' - Joe Hart on Manchester City's leaky defence

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